FfHII GOTMI Game Thread

[DarthCycle]

Here is the saved file at the beginning of turn 1.
View attachment FfHII-GOTMI AD-0001.zip

Our starting location


We'll use the standard rule for GOTM, especially the no-reload rule.

The settings that where used:
version: .16f
Civ: Sheelba (Clan of Ember)
Difficulty: prince
Speed: normal
Size: standard
Era: ancient
Opponents: 5 random, Falamar (Lanun) and Capria (Banor)

The purpose of this game is to learn from other players gameplay tricks some of us haven't tried yet or didn't realized even existed. FfHII is incredibly rich and I'm sure we'll learn quite a few tricks with this format.

In post #2, I will try to track the statistics of each game. However, submit only your best game, my time isn't infinite

I strongly encourage each player to submit an overall review of their game in this thread: what was their overall strategy, what they tried, what worked and what didn't worked. If you don't comment your game, none of us can learn from your experience

 

[DarthCycle]

Result for GOTM-I

Player/Victory/Points/Turn

rjjb/religious/79,422/230
daladinn/?/20,000/208
azragaul/domination/54,938/386
lord vermillion/religious/?/246
lorgen/religious/79,324/203

 

[Chandrasekhar]

We should probably use spoiler tags for sensitive information, right? Or is it assumed that you shouldn't look in this thread until you've completed a game of your own (unless you don't intend to play)?

 

[rjjb]

Never played these guys, but I guess I did alright with 79,422 points ending on turn 230. I've just been playing the Ljosalfar to date, so this was kinda new.

Spoiler :

Lots of room for improvement too.. Played through it pretty quick (I know I technically had a month to plan.. but bah to that..) I accidentally treated a Great Engineer as a Soldier of Kilmorph and well.. Smokehouses aren't quite that valuable.. heh. And I changed tactics part way through (thought at the start I'd switch to the veil and win by domination).. and my research path was gimped because I didn't know what to do with these guys. Ahh well.

Wasn't planning on a religious victory until later on when I started using religion to keep an eye enemy terrain and make some money and realized I was getting close to a victory. Effective though, apparently.

Kinda wish the heroes weren't so damned powerful and religion wasn't so easy to win with.. in hindsight, a religious victory seems kinda cheap. Though perhaps no more than walking over a few entire civs with a single hero, pausing now and again to heal.

Anyhow.. that was fun. When's next month's?

 

[DarthCycle]

good point, let's use spoiler tag for sensitive information. This way, we can browse the thread.

rjjb, now that was quick. You played 230 turns in 6-8 hours??? How did you manage that? Are you using a lot of automation for workers and cities? I would need at least 3x the amount of time for 200+ turns.

 

[Nikis-Knight]

you should put version # in the settings

 

[Good Sauce]

I'm up to turn 150ish. and all I've got to say is:

Spoiler :

COWS! EVERYWHERE!

I think I probabally overexpanded, i doubt I'm gonna come out with a good score, alas.

 

[rjjb]

rjjb, now that was quick. You played 230 turns in 6-8 hours??? How did you manage that? Are you using a lot of automation for workers and cities? I would need at least 3x the amount of time for 200+ turns.

Actually it was about a 2.5 hour game. Many turns, when I know I have nothing important to do, I just skip. Just keep a sensible goal in mind at all times and play towards it while being willing to adapt (change goals) at any time. There was really very little thinking going on in that game; hence why I said there's so much room for improvement. No way my score should have gone that high though, I think - the adjustment must be kinda gimpy because unadjusted I only had a crappy score around 1150ish.

I never automate workers except to connect any extra roads/resources after I've already done everything I figure important. Doesn't make sense to delete them in case I get raided and have to rebuild stuff and they might as well do something constructive instead of fortifying in a city..

Spoiler :

I should add how I use workers, in case you wonder how I can play this fast and not have them automated.. Unless I really need to fine tune a city, and I generally can't be bothered, workers always build the same thing on a given tile. Fresh water plains get a farm, grasslands/floodplains get a cottage, hills get a mine. As soon as farms spread irrigation, all other plains get farms. The exception is with the Ljosalfar, in which case all forests (hilled or otherwise) get cottages. Given that, it's very quick to assign jobs to workers.

Because there were so many farms in this game, it made sense to use Aristocracy/Agriculture. I've never had use for that before given that I play the Ljosalfar and cottage spam. Tune your civics to your game not your whims.

I was using patch f.. didn't realize g and h were out.

 

[daladinn]

hmmm, not good with attachments....

 

[wilboman]

A religious victory is, unless something has been changed without me noticing, NOT easy to achieve. Isn't it like 80% or something? Previous feedback indicated that was darn near impossible.

 

[daladinn]

how do you use the spoiler tag? i finished on 208 with like 22k in points.

 

[Chandrasekhar]

There's a button just above the place where you type your text that does it for you. On a side note about the religious victory, that's actually been the easiest for me to achieve (this is up to Monarch level). I just found the Order, which is nice as it spreads like wildfire. I use an aggressive missionary strategy until the only people that don't follow the Order either have holy cities of their own, or hate me too much to let any missionaries in. I then wage holy war against these people one by one until no one who doesn't follow the Order remains. Inquisitors also supplement this strategy, as they can root out religions in neighbors' borders, too. I think it's a strategy that fits very well with the Order's theme.

 

[wilboman]

Yeah, that is kind of the point of both the late religions, but particularly the Order.

 

[Chandrasekhar]

In any case, it's a whole lot easier than conquering everyone, or even taking over 60% of the world (or whatever Domination requires). Cultural victories take too long, as do time victories, and there's no way I'm going to have enough mana for the Tower of Mastery. Then again, different playstyles make different strategies more viable, so I suppose the other victories do serve some purpose. And of course that sort of crusade is really fun.

 

[steel.stiletto]

I haven't actually played yet, but I noticed that in your opening post, you said to only submit your best attempt... Isn't there only supposed to be one attempt at each GOTM? Or am I mistaken...

Either way, I plan on at least starting this game over the weekend, although it is uncertain wether or not I will finish (this weekend at least).

 

[rjjb]

There should only be one attempt, yes.. If you try again, you already know where things are so you get a bit of an advantage by knowing where the huts and player starts are.

Having said that though, trying different strategies will still result in a drastically different game. Changing just one 'simple' thing in the early game might be the difference between defeat and an awesome score. And besides, the whole map is explorable in 60-70ish turns anyhow..

 

[sgrealis]

Will this work under patches "g" or "h" or will there be issues?

 

[rjjb]

It works, but i don't know how much of an effect it'll have on gameplay (and thus your score) so comparing your game to those using patch f would be kinda hard.

You'd have to check out the changelogs (I don't recall what happened besides art changes).

 

[EvilBohdran]

I'm around turn 200 and doing swimmingly (version 0.16h).

Spoiler :

Headed west early and glad I did. There be gold in them thear hills!
Wiped out two civs early and had a lot of the map to expand into.
I love the worg riders.

Had a new neighbour move in at the western edge of the map,
Acheron the Red Dragon. Happy to have him. Never refuses me when
I go over to borrow a cup of sugar.

I haven't really exhibited much focus in the tech tree; got my shamans
and decided to convert my mana nodes to death mana just to flaunt
it. In the last few turns I've decided to rush the mithril techs; I really
want Ogre Warchiefs. But to my dismay, one to the two mithril
resources is right next to Archeron's city.

Can I safely attack Archeron's city without going to war with the
barbarians? And how do you even kill him, I've yet to succeed in
any game?

And what is the deal with everyone offering me wheelbarrows full
of cash for techs? One civ offered 3000gp for iron working, and another
1500gp for theatre. Thanks guys for funding my army upgrades.

 

[Silverkiss]

Spoiler Answer for EvilBohdran :

As far as I know, you can´t attack Acheron the Red Dragon widhout causing war with the rest of the Barbarian Horde...